The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) welcomes the reforms to its Act and Mandate that have been announced today by the Minister for Northern Australia, Keith Pitt MP.
The reforms will enable the NAIF to become even more flexible, increase its risk appetite and widen the scope of projects eligible for NAIF funding.
NAIF CEO Chris Wade commented, “We are excited by the prospect of becoming even more agile and responsive at a time when northern Australia’s need for financial support and infrastructure development is greater than ever.”
“Since the last series of reforms to NAIF in 2018, we have offered more than $2.2 billion in loans to projects across northern Australia. The reforms announced today will further accelerate the momentum that has been building over the last two years.” Mr Wade said.
Since inception, NAIF’s offers of funding have been spread across the north, with $567m to Western Australian projects, $857m to Northern Territory projects, and $989m to Queensland projects.
In the last financial year, NAIF made 11 Investment Decisions worth more than $1.4 billion that will lead to a broader economic benefit to northern Australia of $4 billion and 3530 jobs.
These projects are spread across all sectors of the northern Australian economy.
“Today’s reforms give us a set of new financing tools that can be applied to drive development across northern Australia”
NAIF acknowledges that these reforms come after an extensive period of consultation related to a statutory review of its structure and activities. NAIF acknowledges and thanks to all stakeholders for their input to this review.
“The last two years has shown what NAIF can achieve for northern Australia and these new tools will assist in making us even more effective.” Mr Wade said.